Genesis 47:9

The years of my pilgrimage. Jacob referred to his own life and that of his father as a “pilgrimage.” They had not come into actual possession of Canaan, but had been obliged to wander about, unsettled and homeless, in the land promised them as an inheritance. This “pilgrimage” was at the same time a figurative representation of the inconsistency and weariness of the earthly life, in which man does not attain to that true rest for which he was created and for which his soul continually longs (see Heb. 4:8, 9). Paul could therefore appropriately regard these words of Jacob as a declaration of the yearning of the patriarchs for the eternal rest of the heavenly Canaan (Heb. 11:13-16).

An hundred and thirty years. Joseph had been 30 years old at the time of his appointment to office (Gen. 41:46), and since that time the 7 plentiful years (ch. 41:47-49) and 2 years of famine had passed (ch. 45:6). Now he had reached the age of 39, and his father was 130 years of age. It is evident from these figures that Joseph was born when his father was 91 years old. Since his birth occurred at the close of Jacob’s 14 years of residence in Padan-aram (ch. 30:25), the patriarch’s age upon arrival there must have been 77.

Few and evil. Jacob’s evaluation of his life was only too true when compared with that of his fathers. Abraham had lived to be 175 years old, and Isaac 180. Neither had led so uncertain a life, so full of distress and danger, of tribulation and anguish, as had Jacob. From his flight to Haran to the time of his removal to Egypt, his life had been nothing but one long succession of troubles (ch. 42:36).